NUS: Black students exclusion

The NUS Black Students’ Officer, Kanja Ibrahim Sesay, has today called for an urgent and impartial inquiry into the exclusion of Black students from an NUS event for Black students scheduled to take place in London next week.

Sesay has called for the investigation claiming he has received complaints that NUS President, Aaron Porter, has prevented Black students from engaging with NUS activities in the same way as others within the 7 million members’ strong union.

Sesay reports that 'the students argue that Porter’s actions have led to many students being deliberately excluded from participating in the event to be held on 27-28 November, against higher fees, education cuts and rising racism'.

In a statement released today the NUS Black Students’ Officer has called for an investigation into three aspects of the NUS President’s conduct.

He claims NUS President Aaron Porter is, ‘deliberately obstructing students from registering for the first day of the conference; Imposing arbitrary deadlines that contradict NUS’ standard practices, which have not been applied to other NUS events, leading to the exclusion of Black students; and using NUS resources to cancel non-refundable prepaid hotel rooms which consequently deprived students who were prepared to pay for the rooms from participating in the event and resulted in NUS wasting thousands of pounds'.

The NUS Black Students’ Officer said: “Black students demand an urgent inquiry into why the NUS President has excluded bona fide members from attending NUS Black Students’ Conference, and why he has used vast NUS resources to stop students participating rather than facilitating their attendance.”

“Black students are shocked that they have been singled out and treated less favourably than other groups, especially as the hurdles put in front of the Black students’ event have not been imposed on other NUS events.

"Students are angry and want answers to why the NUS President has not been transparent about his unilateral decision to cancel hotel rooms without consulting the Black students organising the conference, and how he could disregard NUS’ Constitutional rights for self-organised autonomous groups.”

Sesay's statement lists a detailed account of the Black students' claims that they are being treated less favourably and unfairly excluded and calls for an urgent, forensic and independent investigation into the conduct of NUS’ leadership.

Main picture: NUS President, Aaron Porter at demonstration.